A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

I’m delighted and hugely honoured to have been invited to speak at today’s event.

I’m also very humbled to be here in the presence of so many fantastic women who have achieved so highly in their sports – much may have been made recently of my election as the first woman vice-chairman of Cork GAA, but really that’s a very minor achievement compared to the heights reached by today’s award winners.

In terms of my own personal development, there is no doubt that my involvement with the GAA has brought huge benefits. All my life, I’ve suffered from what has been at times crippling shyness, and coupled with an introverted personality, my involvement in sports administration has forced me out of my comfort zone and helped me to conquer this to some degree. At all the difficult times in my life, I’ve had to pick myself up and keep going because there was a match to go to or a meeting to attend, and of course, whether as a player or a fan, nothing beats that winning feeling.

The point I really want to make here is that sport has something to offer to everyone. We can’t all be stars on the field, like the fantastic women honoured here today by the Evening Echo, but we can all find a place, whether as administrators, backroom staff, helpers, or most importantly of all, supporters.

And that’s the other point I want to get across today. You are all well aware that women’s sports don’t have the level of support that men’s sports do — or don’t get the media coverage men’s sports do. Or indeed don’t get the level of funding men’s sports do.

There have been encouraging signs lately – Liberty Insurance’s sponsorship of both the hurling and camogie championships is a huge step forward and an example of the benefits of bringing all our Gaelic sports under one umbrella. There is no doubt that this has helped to raise the profile of the game.

Ambassadors like Anna Geary have become household names and I think it’s safe to say that Anna is now as recognisable a presence as any current Cork hurler. The achievements of Briege Corkery, a former overall winner of these awards and also a monthly winner in 2014, simply cannot be ignored, and again have done much to raise the profile of women’s Gaelic Games.

RTE’s coverage of women’s rugby is another green shoot, and I’ve no doubt that the recent formation of the Women’s GPA will benefit elite camogie and ladies football players in achieving some of the benefits enjoyed by their male counterparts. Slowly but surely barriers are breaking down.

However, the bottom line for broadcasters and publishers has to be demand. Commercial organisations have other goals besides the promotion of sports – they will publish or broadcast whatever sells. And this is where we come into it. While there are many people in this room who are participants in and huge supporters of women’s sports, there are many others who are not and may have never attended a women’s sports event. The legendary Eamonn Ryan has highlighted this issue, saying that “One of the problems with women’s sport is that it needs more support from other women.”

In the same interview, he pointed out that this is not just an Irish problem, and that despite the difference in population, there were probably more women at the All-Ireland Ladies’ Football Final than there were at the women’s FA Cup Final. It’s a chicken-and-egg situation – if we can increase interest in women’s sports events, they are likely to get more coverage, but how can we increase interest without more coverage? We can’t as individuals control what the media do, but we can control our own actions. I’m calling on everyone here today, but particularly those who are not regular attenders, to make a small and simple commitment – in 2015, make the effort to go to just ONE more women’s sports event than you normally would, and if possible, bring someone with you and spread the word. As the Chinese proverb says, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Gaelic games and rugby are my favourite sports, but there is something for everyone out there, and with so many disciplines represented here today: basketball, swimming, camogie and ladies football, hockey, handball, kickboxing, soccer, athletics and rugby, there is really no excuse for any of us. And the good news in these tough economic times is that it will probably cost you a lot less than it would to attend the male equivalent! I’d be the first to admit that I haven’t been the greatest attender at women’s games in recent years, and I’m determined to take on this commitment myself and I hope many of you will too.

Of course, it’s not all about women supporting women, though that is very important. [I certainly wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today without the support of men, and whether we like it or not, men play dominant roles in many women’s sports. I’ve been asked a number of times recently if being a woman has been any barrier to my progress in the GAA, and hand-on-heart, I cannot say it has ever stopped me. The fact that I am now vice-chairman of Cork County Board is largely due to the many men who have encouraged my involvement from day one, from club level right up to the current president of the GAA, who is a huge supporter of women. (But) I look forward to the day when a woman being elected to a senior position in the GAA or a woman being appointed to referee a men’s game will be no more newsworthy than if it was the other way around. But as women, we need support and encouragement from the men in our lives if we are to achieve highly, be they our fathers, brothers, partners or friends.

My mother has always been a very inspirational figure in my life and I have always been well aware of this – her support, encouragement and unconditional love have always been clear to me.

However, when studying for a Masters in Education some years ago, I learned that the support of a father or father-figure can be hugely significant in the development of girls, and this caused me to reflect on my relationship with my father. He was, in some respects, a rather hands-off dad who left the difficult parenting tasks to my mother, or maybe as my sister says, he was just afraid of me! However, he was a constant supporting presence in my life. We had a farm, and with no boys in the family and I being the eldest, I was always out on the farm with him, feeding cattle or lambing sheep or doing whatever needed to be done and there was no special treatment because I was a girl. One of the most important lessons I learned from him was that being a woman should never be a barrier to anything I might want to achieve.

Once upon a time, one of Shakepeare’s characters uttered the immortal lines: “Her voice was ever soft, gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman.”

Society has moved on a lot from those days, but to the men out there, I urge you to believe in the women in your lives, especially if you have daughters, let their voices be heard and do everything you can to further their ambition while at the same time letting them know that you love them no matter what.

* This article is a truncated extract from Tracey Kennedy’s address at yesterday’s Evening Echo annual ladies sports star awards in Cork.